Understanding the 2026 Corps of Engineers nationwide permit process

The US Army Corps of Engineers is under a legal deadline to issue new Nationwide Permits (NWP) rules to replace the current ones which expire on March 15, 2026. Will the Corps be able to reissue new Nationwide Permitting rules before this deadline? While the timing may be tight, I believe they are on pace to do so.

I headed the Corps of Engineers Regulatory Program Policy Development office for 20 years and oversaw the Nationwide Permit program. At stake are literally billions of dollars in infrastructure and related investments nationwide.

Given this, the Corps is highly motivated to issue new rules before the existing rules expire. The Corps does not have the resources to process the potential 1000’s of additional individual permits that could be required.

The Corps published proposed NWPs for public comment on June 18, 2025 with a 30-day comment period. The comment period closed July 18, 2025. This provides an approximately five-month timeframe to publish the 2026 NWPs so they will be effective by the March 2026 deadline.

By comparison, the Corps published proposed 2021 NWPs in September 2020 with a 60-day comment period. The Corps then bifurcated the NWPs and issued the 2021-NWPs on 18 January 2021 which became effective on 18 March 2021 (2021 NWPs).

The remainder were published on December 27, 2021 and became effective on February 25 2022 (2022 NWPs).

Given this time frame, the Corps motivation and the lack of a pandemic, I believe the Corps can be expected to issue the permits on time.

But there’s another important point to remember. If circumstances cause delays, the Corps has an option to prevent some NWPs from expiring.

While the Corps indicated that all NWPs expire on March 15, 2026, only the NWPs issued in 2021 expire by law on that date. The February 25, 2022 NWPs would not expire by law until February 25, 2027.

The Corps could bifurcate the NWPs as it did in 2021 and extend some or all of the 2022 NWPs’ expiration until February 26, 2027.

While the Corps would not want to do this, it would be preferable to having NWPs expire. The Corps could then sync the NWPs later.

Sam Collinson

Senior Advisor

A member of the Dawson team since 2007, Sam Collinson spent 30+ years in the Army Corps of Engineers. As Chief of the Policy Development Section, he had primary responsibility for development of Corps Regulatory Program regulations and policy guidance including Corps Administrative Appeal Program and regulations and the Nationwide permit (NWP) program,